Nothing personal Duds, it's just that this seems to be something like the ninth or tenth 'Where is Origins? When is Origins coming back?' type thread that I've read, and it all seems to come across to me as being a bit whiney and pointless. You'd think Matt and Carlos had cancelled Christmas, or something, the way some people have been going on.

It's with regret that I'll have to stand in the negative camp. The story is about the origins of Dredd, it had a fair degree of hype, it was a story much or all of the fanbase were excited about and it's suffered the worst break in the history of Dredd. No other major Dredd story has had such a long break and I for one think it's been a disastrous blow. I'm sorry to say Origins will be remembered as much for its protacted delay as for its content. And to make things worse - the story was stopped at the worst moment - when Booth's troops were about to kidnap Fargo. You couldn't have picked a worst moment to delay the story.:(

Unforseen problems do arise so if Origins had to be delayed then it had to be delayed but even accepting that it's still been a disaster, arguably the biggest cock-up in Dredd's 30 year strip history. The story's pacing has been destroyed.

"the story was stopped at the worst moment - when Booth's troops were about to kidnap Fargo. You couldn't have picked a worst moment to delay the story.:( "

I'm inclined to go the other way. The fact that people on this site are going nuts for its return I think it was the perfect time to take a break. It ended on a massive cliff-hanger which has got everyone wanting to know what's going to happen. Job done.

I dunno, I'm not exactly over the moon that the story isn't running to it's conclusion as I type, but I can still remember that last panel of Rico, Dredd and the paratroopers pretty well.

As for the poll, are these the worst options for a poll ever?A. YesB. Durrr...C. NoD. Do you want fries with that?

"a) Have an extended break and fill it with other Dredd stories"

As the problem seems to be in Andorra, not here, then what else can you do.

"b) Hand some Origins episodes over to another artist."

Well, then you potentially upset the artist (who has had such upsets before on Dredd) and the readers. It's not a story that natural needs another artist like the Judge Child.

"c) Make a formal announcement to the industry and the fans about the break."

Get real, release a press statement saying it's all gone pear-shaped? Tharg said it was going to be away for a few weeks, maybe he should have said a while, but he did tell us, in the comic, which people read. What's the point in releasing it on the net or to a magazine that not everybody does read?

"d) Let the news come out gradually."

He told the readers, if anyone isn't reading 2000AD by now for Origins they aren't going to come back because an important story is on hiatus.

e) Cancel Judge Dredd for some weeks.

Why on earth would 2000AD ever cancel Dredd willingly. At least this way Dredd fans have something to keep them going, and they haven't been bad stories.

f) Fill in with reprints of classic-era Dredd.

Desperate.

g) Anything that'll free up your time to edit two comics simultaneously and planning a great 30th birthday bash

moonbeam - I hereby unmask you as the internet supervillain Captain Hyperbole! (Either that or you're just an enormous troll who's managed to goad the following reply out of me.)

"a disastrous blow": No, that would be prog 1208 you're thinking of.

"Origins will be remembered as much for its protacted delay as for its content": Not by me.

"the story was stopped at the worst moment": No, a cliffhanger is the perfect place to stop a story for a break. See also: The Empire Strikes Back.

"the biggest cock-up in Dredd's 30 year strip history": Wouldn't that be something more like not having any new Dredd to print and being forced to reprint "You Bet Your Life" from prog 25 in prog 268? (And even there, hardly the worst thing in the world.) Probably my vote would go for some aspect of Millar-Dredd, like Inferno (& associates).

"The story's pacing has been destroyed": See The Empire Strikes Back again, for that one.

You couldn't be more full of it if you went on a feeding frenzy at the local treatment plant.

I was the talk of the town- "lucky bastard", they were whispering behind my back. If only they'd known the truth: that most desirable woman in town or not, she blew like a duck and gave me genital herpes for my trouble.

Now that's a disasterous blow*. This is a break in the story- a bit like 'Origins book 1', if you like. Pretty good place for a break as well.

*some (or indeed all) of this story might be complete bullshit. Especially the bit about the genital herpes.

It looks like we'll have to wait a little over two months between episodes, ignoring the (so far) solid interlude material. In the wider world of comic books, this would be called 'keeping pretty much to schedule'. We're just spoiled.

And Moonbeam, the 'pace' of a story has little to do with the time between its episodes seeing print - it's an internal thing. See Cerebus for an example - kept a 20-pages-a-month schedule as regular as clockwork for 300 issues, but sometimes it rocketted along, other (latter) times it dragged itself out like slow-motion fingernail-pulling.

Anyway, my definition of 'disastrous' would be a reprint of Prog 855's 'Judge Tyrannosaur'. Or indeed, Prog 855 itself, an issue so bad that I had genuinely completely blocked it from memory until I found it again over Christmas.

I was the talk of the town- "lucky bastard", they were whispering behind my back. If only they'd known the truth: that most desirable woman in town or not, she blew like a duck and gave me genital herpes for my trouble.

Now that's a disasterous blow*. This is a break in the story- a bit like 'Origins book 1', if you like. Pretty good place for a break as well."

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Well, there are 'diasterous' blows and 'disastrous' blows. Depends how you choose to spell it. :)